Life / Polish TV licence (abonament) - almost no-one I know pays [36]

polish radio has a commercial/information during commercials about amount of next year's abonament and says if you pay for cable you still have to pay abonament.

History / 'Prehistory' Celts in Southern Poland [20]

How you learn things about your own town/ street ahen googling things for people - I just found this when I googled "Poland's oldest traces of the Christian tradition" in Polish.

Also, you may want to read this:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland_in_Antiquity

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]

those are different surnames of the same origin, not different spelling.
Polonius, couldn't it also be from word "grzech"= sin.

Food / 'Wigilia', the traditional Christmas Eve supper in Poland [77]

Just finished cooking uszka with my mum, we mince mushrooms, and don't add cabbage (that is for cabbage and mushrooms pierogi) and as many recipes suggest we add egg to filling, that way it's easier to make and more survive boiling.

Alo although most people use uszka to barszcz, some add them to other soups, we used to make kwasówka, a soup made with sour cabbage , my friend has żurek with uszka.

Food / 'Wigilia', the traditional Christmas Eve supper in Poland [77]

the ones with rice and mushrooms.

You could also do potato ones (never heard of it as Chrismas Eve dish, but no meat in them)
or as google suggests just mushrooms or with kasza and mushrooms

Life / If you are Polish abroad or of Polish descent, do you celebrate St. Nicholas day? [33]

Whatever comes, it's good to find some nice things under Christmas tree and spend time with people :)
And I just read in local newspaper that St Nick (wearing his bishop attire) came to my town on his sledge with reindeers from North Pole. An he came at 9th.

Life / If you are Polish abroad or of Polish descent, do you celebrate St. Nicholas day? [33]

I meant the story was create in places where fireplaces were much more popular so Santa comes down the chimney and leaves coal for naughty children. St Nick and Angel can just teleport from heaven , no need for chimneys.

I'm pointing out difference between beings that bring gifts in Polish tradition and new Santa. ;)

Food / 'Wigilia', the traditional Christmas Eve supper in Poland [77]

In my family
1. Karp w galarecie and (if is) herring in cream
2. soup
3. Gołąbki
4. Pierogi

WE don't have salads or fried fish, but those would go before soup.

Life / If you are Polish abroad or of Polish descent, do you celebrate St. Nicholas day? [33]

Did Saint Nicholas ever come through chimney? How would he fit in air duct, aren't those 14x14 cm ?? how would he get out from tiled stove?

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Tiled_stoves_in_Poland

Food / 'Wigilia', the traditional Christmas Eve supper in Poland [77]

You always start with "opłatek", some people count it as dish, some don't.

Food / 'Wigilia', the traditional Christmas Eve supper in Poland [77]

Kids sometimes can't handle some meals, while they love other. If you are the person responsible for cooking you can spice it the way you like and choose what you think is the best for your family. There migh be dishes that are not traditional in your family, but are traditional in your region, I think there are at least 100 of different traditional potrawy wigilijne in Poland

News / Poland Secession [5]

If he was talking about right wing I'm not sure he meant RAS, it is not seen as right wing, also they want autonomy not independence. On the other hand some right wing politicians claim EU is evil.

Food / 'Wigilia', the traditional Christmas Eve supper in Poland [77]

With "traditional" Christmas Eve dishes, you take a group of 10 unrelated people who live in the same area, and have roots there and will come with at least 20 dishes. Also the way you count to 12 is pretty arbitrary, is wafer a meal, are different versions of pierogi different meals, what about "uszka", or "kompot".

Life / If you are Polish abroad or of Polish descent, do you celebrate St. Nicholas day? [33]

you never stop believing in St. Nicholas. ( if you are a Christian from denomination that has saints) he just stops sending presents with angels and starts using people instead.

Language / Mam NA imię XY in Polish [6]


it's incorrect to use with only first name, and while often used in Poland could confuse if you have foreign first name.
Nazywam się is for surname or both.
Mam na nazwisko Y- the same structure, but surname=nazwisko.

Food / Sernik Wiedenski [15]


it is a phenomen like snickers cake. a cake that is supposed to taste like knopprrs cookie

News / PiS wants symmetry for minorites living in Poland [71]


It is a generalization, but what I meant is that there is history and small things are used to remind it , and PIS uses it. I don't know if this is the cause to justify the means.

News / PiS wants symmetry for minorites living in Poland [71]

The case is interesting, but of one person only.
We Poles have this fear
"Nie będzie Niemiec pluł nam w twarz
ni dzieci nam Germanił"

German won't spit in our face and won't Germanise our children - this could have been our anthem. It did happen in the past and now PIS has something to play with.

Food / How natural is food in Poland? [25]

Ok Are we talking about:
how natural Polish food on average is?
How natural Polish food imported to Uk is?
What meals we reccomend in Kraków, tahat are widely avaliable, and typically Polish?

I have an opinion about a quality of food, and could to some extend recommend some meals in Kraków but have no idea about quality of food in Polish shops.

All I know is that frozen meals or microwave ready are always worse than real thing, and it doesn't matter if it's Indian, Italian, Chinese or Polish.

Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]

Really? And in UK and USA and other countries there aren't any homeless people? Who don't want to go to shelters?

It's a tragedy when somebody dies, either if it's because they didn't go to shelters or they fell and lost consciousness or were too drunk to notice it's freezing. But all it proves is that we have that sort of climate and

Food / How natural is food in Poland? [25]


Home-made sour cabbage beats one from the bag, especially one that has to travel abroad.
Fresh pierogi beat frozen ones.

And while Italian is very popular here, Chinese and Indian are not. If you want to try other, not Polish food in Kraków I'd suggest Ukrainian, Jewish, there is also very popular Georgian franchise.

Food / How natural is food in Poland? [25]


Do you want organic / natural food like the tread title suggests, or just standard food?

I'd start with pierogi, as they are traditional, cheap and avaliable almost everywhere.

Also you'll see people selling "obwarzanki" and "oscypki" everywhere.

Language / Polish pronunciation for Christmas Carol [4]

You can even type bits
"Przy - bie - że - li do Be - tle - jem pa - ste - rze" to hear it more clearly, as accents are different in songs than in real speech.

Very important are ł ę ą ś ć ź ń ż ó
Also you are up to a challenge as it is a fast carol.

Life / Unique Culture Aspects of Krakow [18]

Also legends:

of Wanda who didn't want to marry German
of pigeons- soldiers
of Lajkonik
of Hejnał
of "kosciół mariacki" towers
of the Wawel dragon

cracow-life.com/poland/krakow-legends
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Wanda
polish4kids.com/kids-zone/legends/18-how-princess-wanda-saved-krakow

Life / Unique Culture Aspects of Krakow [18]

there is also traditional outfit

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_costumes_of_Poland#Lesser_Poland.2FMa.C5.82opolska
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strój_krakowski
polalech.pl/krakowski-opis.htm

News / March for Poland's democracy organized by PiS 13th Dec [49]

I think they missed one date. They could have a march last week a the November uprising anniversary. Also I don't remember a march for October revolution. I mean we should commemorate every possible thing with freedom marches.

Life / If you are Polish abroad or of Polish descent, do you celebrate St. Nicholas day? [33]


we celebrate at 24th more , but still we have this too. You could give somebody a bottle of something and tell them you met St. Nick and he told you to give it to them and to share. That way you could

Language / Mushroom: pieczarka vs grzyb [24]

pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szmaciak_gałęzisty
grzyby-polskie.eu.interia.pl/16.htm
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piestrzenica

Haven't heard about those before, and English wikipedia has just Latin names for it.


Wikipedia says, that there are more kinds of mushrooms at pieczarka family. That one is the one I always think of when I say pieczarka, but then I wanted to be precise.

Language / Mushroom: pieczarka vs grzyb [24]

Fungi are grzyby in Polish.
Also mushroom are grzyby in Polish. We assume talking about eating/cooking etc. we mean edible muschrooms.
Pieczarka is a type of mushroom, usually this one
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agaricus_bisporus